1.) ON THE UNDER-REPORTED NEWS OF THE DAY: Republicans want to extend the payroll tax cut without paying for it. Carney won't get specific, says "there is time to get this done."

2.) ON THE BUDGET: Carney defends it as balanced and fair and says that deficit reduction has to be done in a "responsible way." Carney, on a report showing the deficit ballooning after 2022: "It doesn't mean that every problem is solved."

3.) SYRIA: Supports a broader Arab League and UN presence, won't talk about the possibility of U.S. troops serving as peacekeepers. On comparisons to Libya: "We made clear that every country is different."

Full liveblog after the jump.

Carney starts at 3:00.

Carney: "Welcome to the White House. ... I know that you have been well-briefed on the president's budget."

Q: House Speaker wants to extend payroll tax cut with no payfors.

Carney: "First of all, the president believes very strong ... that we need to extend the payroll tax cut to 160 million Americans, as well as unemployment insurance and the doc fix."

More: "Those things really have a direct positive impact on economic growth and job creation. We need to do all three of them."

More: "Republicans who had as a matter of their own bylaws in the House said that no tax cuts ever need to be paid for insisted that this one needed to be paid for.

More: "There is time to get this done."

More: "We'll see how this process moved forward. There is time to do it."

Q: At this point, he's not willing to accept this proposal?

Carney calls it 'hypothetical.' More: "Let's just see how this process plays out."

More: "It's certainly very important. ... The president supports extending all of it."

Q: On Friday, you seemed satisfied that the contraception issue was settled? Bishops aren't satisfied.

Carney: "We feel very confident that the policy the president announced on Friday ensures both that women will get access to important preventive services like contraception and they will be able to do so while preserving the religious institutions that they work for."

More: "Now, we never set out with the assumption that everyone would be satisfied with this balanced approach, with this, what we believe that ensures that all women no matter where they work get the preventive services.... And I would simply note with regard to the bishops that they never supported health care reform to begin with."

More, on the Senate legislation: "The issue here is giving employers the right to deny women, to deny women, access to preventative services including contraception free of charge. ... This bill or these bills would give any employer the right to deny contraceptive coverage. That's dangerous and that is wrong."

Q: Sen. Manchin is also on that bill...

Carney: "The president found in the policy that he put forward on Friday, an approach that balances the vital need to provide these services to women without further cost while ensuring that religious liberties were protected. And again, there's been a broad spectrum of folks ..." that have supported the president's position.

Calls the Sen. Rubio/Sen. Blount bill "dangerous and wrong" again.

Q: Israel has accused Iran and Hezbollah of being behind bombings?

Carney: "As you know already, we condemn in very strong terms the attempted attacks against Israeli targets ... We continue to examine the situation, details are still emerging regarding those incidents."

Q: Back to the payroll tax cut.

Carney: "We found it ironic" that House Republicans believed in no-pay-fors before Obama's tax bill.

More: "That's the approach we've taken and we certainly expect Congress to act without delay."

Q: How important is the offset?

Carney says they're willing to offset it "in a responsible way."

Q: When the president spoke to NoVa community college, he said the numbers were big? Isn't the administration spending more than it takes in?

Carney: "I appreciate the analogy. ... This economy was in free-fall in January of 2009. ... Because of the free fall that we were in, urgent measures needed to be taken to reverse the direction of the economy. ... Those actions were taken, hard choices were made. Thanks to those tough choices ... the economy has now grown for a number of consecutive quarters."

More: "And we are headed in the right direction. But we have a long way to go."

More: "We need to make sure we get it right."

Notes that his proposal cuts spending in a "responsible way."

More: "That's the approach that the American people expect us to take."

Q: If he had a GOP partner in Congress, he's willing to go farther than this budget document. This is what he's willing to do on his own?

Carney: "I wouldn't want to negotiate the line items of a global grand bargain ... The president demonstrated his willingness last summer to take on the scared cows in his own party."

More: "It doesn't reflect every item of the potential grand bargain that the speaker of the House walked away from."

More: Repeats that it is a balanced approach. "We haven't had a willingness to travel the bipartisan balanced road on the Republican side."

Says that Obama has been willing to make tough choices, but GOP hasn't.

More: "The alternative is the so-called Ryan budget."

More: "I think that is a tough message to explain to the average American out there... And the answer on one side of the aisle is to seriously affect the livelihoods of senior citizens so that we can give more tax breaks to the folks who have" received the most tax breaks over the last ten years.

Q: Compares it to a spouse relationship.

Obama: "He took a lot of heat from his party ... because of his willingness to make some tough choices. He remains willing to do that and he would welcome a willingness by Republicans to approach deficit reduction in a balanced way."

More: "What we forget about Simpson Bowles is not a single House Republican supported it" (3:19).

Q: Syrian question.

Carney: "We call on the Assad regime to cease and desist this behavior."

More: "As you know, we've been working with a group that's standing up -- the friends of Syria ... we will work with all our international partners and allies and that includes countries in the region to further pressure Assad."

More: "That includes discussions of providing humanitarian aid. ... and other measures that could be taken to isolate Assad further."

Q: What about peacekeepers, like the Arab League proposes?

Carney: "Regarding UN peacekeepers as a general principle," we support an expanded Arab League mission.

Q: Could there be a scenario where US troops are over there?

Carney says that we're talking about UN or Arab League auspices.

Q: Are there any similarities between Syria and Libya?

Carney: "I think it is important to point out two things ... all the way back when Libya was unfolding, we made clear that every country is different."

More: "the situation in Libya was one where you had United Nations support, you had broad Arab League support, you had the Libyan people asking the for the kind of intervention" that was authorized.

More: "We are, in a way that is similar, we are working with international allies and partners from Europe, the United Nations, the region to forge a broad group supporting the Syrian people."

Q: Why did Jack Lew say that it is not a time for austerity?

Carney: "It's a great question because it contains the answer within it. The president's vision for fulfilling the moral obligation" to tackling the debt is contained within the budget.

More: "We need to take steps to strengthen the economy"

More: "Even now as we're passing measures that do that ... we do those things. And we do them responsibly and pay for them. Even as we lock in the kind of medium and long term savings" that will help close the deficit.

Q: Peterson foundation said that when you look at Obama budget, debt rises rapidly after 2022. How are you locking in savings?

Carney: "The principle one is for elected officials of good will ... to check the ideological baggage at the door when they go in to negotiate."

More: "If we all are willing to make the tough choices, we can get it done. ... A lot of people talk about how nothing's going to get done ... that's what everyone said in 1996. Can't be done because there's an incumbent president running for reelection with a congress controlled by another party. ... It takes merely a willingness to compromise, a willingness to not adhere to ideological standards that say 'no way, no how."

Q: Syria again.

Carney: "I think you're right the kind of thing I'd not be able to speak to here. ... "

Q: How concerned is this administration that the counter-insurgencies could have Al-Qaeda sympathies?

Carney: "These kind of questions were asked in ... during the period of the situation in Libya. ... We don't know everything about what the so-called opposition is."

More: "If you're referring to the comments of AQI and others, we find it worth nothing that overall the Arab Spring and what it represents and the way that it demonstrates the desire for greater freedom and prosperity" is a "repudiation" of the "ideology of al-Qaeda."

Shows pretty decisively that the approach of terrorism against civilians has been rejected.

Q: In 2009, Obama said he pledged to cut the deficit in half.

Carney: "it was a propose based upon what we knew about the economy at the time." Says the economy was actually far worse. "As recently as six or eight months ago, the economy shrank... we now know it shrank by 9 percent."

More: "The president's budget that we put forward today" cuts the budget in 5 years instead of four.

Q: Carried interest will be taxed as income. Is this a swipe at Romney?

Carney: "Not at all. ... We simply believe that ... with respect specifically to carried interest that money earned as a result of work performed should be taxed in the same way whether you're a hedge fund manager or a shift worker: as income."

More: "It again goes to the broader principle embodied in the Buffett rule" that rich people shouldn't pay more than their secretaries.

Carney: "It's not aimed at an individual."

More: "This is not about ... I can refer you to the campaign if they want to preview campaign lines. ... This isn't about raising revenues for the sake of raising revenues."

Q: Does Obama want to keep talking about contraception?

Carney: "The president feels that the policy he announced on Friday achieves the appropriate balance between the need to extend these services to all women no matter where they work."

More: "And doing it while protecting religious liberties."

More: "Again, I pointed to statements by Catholic charities and Catholic health associations."

Q: So we can expect to hear more from him?

Carney: The right policy is what Obama is looking for. "Doing so in a way that's sensitive to religious beliefs."

More: "And he believes both goals are very important. And that's why he instructed his administration to find a solution to this and was pleased that he does."

Q: Two Chinese VP's visit to the US.

Carney: "As you heard the president describe quite fully ... we the United States of America are a pacific power. ... The president feels very strongly that in the previous decade prior to his taking office, the region was somewhat neglected by the United States because of its preoccupation and focus on Iraq."

Q: Back to the bombing against Israeli targets? Why did they blame Iran?

Carney says the US hasn't made a judgment yet. "We have no information yet to share with you."

Carney: "I actually don't know if he did ever meet Whitney Houston. As for his ... I think it would be hard not to be an admirer of her immense talent ... I know that his thoughts and prayers are with her family, especially her daughter. And it's a tragedy to lose someone so talented as such a young age."